Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern

Morwenna Ludlow

A unique interdisciplinary study of Gregory of Nyssa in particular, and of the problem of modern readings of the Church Fathers in general

Raises important questions about the relation of the disciplines of systematic theology and patristics

Reflects upon the notions of tradition, authority, theological hermeneutics, and of the range of meaning in an ancient text

Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern

Morwenna Ludlow

Description

The fourth-century Christian thinker, Gregory of Nyssa, has been the subject of a huge variety of interpretations over the past fifty years, from historians, theologians, philosophers, and others. In this highly original study, Morwenna Ludlow analyses these recent readings of Gregory of Nyssa and asks: What do they reveal about modern and postmodern interpretations of the Christian past? What do they say about the nature of Gregory's writing? Working thematically through studies of recent Trinitarian theology, Christology, spirituality, feminism, and postmodern hermeneutics, Ludlow develops an approach to reading the Church Fathers which combines the benefits of traditional scholarship on the early Church with reception-history and theology.

Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern

Morwenna Ludlow

Table of Contents

IntroductionI. The Doctrine of the Trinity 1. Historical and conceptual background2. Philosophy and the Gospel3. The social doctrine of the Trinity4. Reading Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian theologyII. God Became Human for our Salvation 1. Christology2. Salvation3. Spirituality: perpetual progress in the good4. The Christian life: ethics5. Reading Gregory of Nyssa on Christ, salvation, and human transformationIII. Sex, Gender, and Embodiment 1. Introduction: feminism and the Fathers2. Creation in the image of God3. What is virginity?4. Macrina: in life and in letters5. Reading Gregory of Nyssa on sex, gender, and embodimentIV. Theology 1. Apophatic theology as `reaching out to what lies beyond'2. God and being, beings and language: Scott Douglass3. The gift, reciprocity and the word: John Milbank4. Returning to the Trinity5. Reading Gregory of Nyssa on language, theology, and the language of theologyIV. Conclusions 1. Tradition, history and historiography2. The interpretation of ambiguity: Chritsina theology and pedagogy

Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern

Morwenna Ludlow

Author Information

Morwenna Ludlow is Lecturer in Patristics at the University of Exeter.